The release of The Interview, an American comedy depicting the death of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, has been cancelled. A massive cyberattack on Sony, widely blamed on Pyongyang, and apparent threats against…

After a month’s absence from public life, fuelling idle speculation about a possible coup, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has at last reappeared in public. Limping with a cane, in line with reports he…

Koreas North (red) and South battle it out.
EPA/Jeon Heon-KyunMarch 7, 2014

North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong-un has now been in power for more than two years. He has largely stuck to the ideological principles that his father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, had introduced…

North Korea’s isolation has seen it rely on criminal activity to earn foreign currency.
December 21, 2011

The death of Kim Jong-il has refocused the world’s attention on the “Hermit Kingdom”, North Korea. This moniker is an apt description of its isolation from the international community – an isolation that…

Kim Jong-il, the mercurial “Dear Leader” of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), died of heart failure on 17 December 2011, at the age of 69. One could be excused for not believing in the…